


Firstly, It is Time for Some Pizza

by SirMcKenah



Series: Unfinished and Never Touched On Again Stories. [1]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Bad Parenting, First Person, I sort of Want to Punch Old Morgan, M/M, Out of Character Jason Todd, Running Away, SO MUCH TALKING AND DETAIL, Sorry Jason..., This will be in Parts, Unfinished Piece, first draft, old draft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 04:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12380688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirMcKenah/pseuds/SirMcKenah
Summary: Morgan Oswald Kingsley has never been a fan of school, or people, or even the way his father has never really been involved with his life, so as a kind 'Screw you' to that side of his life he runs away to a pretty sketchy part of Gotham where he meets a guy who was just passing by.





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> This was the very first draft of my long in progressed fan fiction, Project: Crimson. This is about Jason meeting a young boy named Morgan Kingsley and it focuses on their story together, becoming friends, facing their mental, and daily struggles. Over time they end up falling in love with each other but I wanted the main focus of this story was understanding the both of the characters.  
> I wrote this many, MANY years ago. Mind you, I just sort of started taking writing more seriously at the age of creating this… But I do not think it is all that great. Though I remind myself that we all start somewhere and this is not that bad.  
> In fact, at the age that I wrote this I think it is pretty decent and there are some things that I wish I kept using for writing. I think that some parts I took more seriously in writing whereas other parts it is easily shown that I felt tired of writing this story.

I gave an annoyed sigh. I tapped at the notebook I was writing in because I had no idea of what I was supposed to say. Or to write for that matter. What was there to say? Sometimes I wondered why I wrote whenever I was upset. It faltered everything I was working for. With yet another sigh, I shoved my notebook into my backpack and walked on. I had no idea of where I was or where I had planned on going but as far away from home as possible.

I was tired of everything at home as well as all of the people within my household. Which was just my father. And honestly, he never did anything wrong. He was right in our fight but I at that point I was young and I over reacted to such a fight. I was childish and had cried because he took away my art supplies (which looking back on that, I noticed that I was indeed quite a fool at the time), he told me that I had to work for my art much like he had to work for many things in his life. As if it was not the only thing keeping my life in tact. I sometimes never understood why taking such important things away from your child was a good idea, but my father strongly believed that it would help so I did not fight back. I was never a trouble maker in the first place so it almost never happened.

Though what had caused such a fight was yet another fight that happened at school. I was getting insulted by some other male over a stupid thing, I don’t recall what he was saying really but it made me so upset that I punched him and broke his nose.

Of course I was sent to the office and I had a wonderful talk with the principle. He told me that he was going to call my father and I begged him not to do so because he would happen to be at work at during this time of day. He called anyway. With me sitting in the chair. Sitting helplessly, awaiting my fate for what he was about to say to me.

I had to be sent home early that day and  awaited for my dad to come home. He always came late, around ten at night which is an hour before I went to bed every night except on weekends because I stayed by late during that time. This time I went to bed early only to be woken up by him shaking my shoulder and asking me what happened to make me react in such manners.

I hated being woken up, I gave him a scoffed answer which made him upset at me. He admitted to me that he was proud of the fact that I fought back with the insults. Then he commented on how it was not the best idea to punch the boy in the face.

I nodded, but felt like crap after words for how I structured my answer towards him. In fact; I felt pretty sick about for everything that I had said. Things were pretty normal until I started to draw more than work on my missing homework. My father was pretty mad at this and he grounded me from drawing. Really, I do not blame him for what he did, but I was mad. I was so very angry and it was silly. I thought in the fit of my rage that would have been a good idea to run away and to never come back. It was stupid, but I remembered that I saved fifty dollars just in case something like this would happen.  

I packed my things (like clothes, a notebook, art pencils, my iPod, you know, things that we need to live with) into my violin case and backpack. I felt smart at the moment despite something in my head would scream in my ear that I would regret what I was about to do.   

When I was done packing my things, I opened my window and left my house in a haste. It took awhile to have someone who was willing to walk me to the subway but after ten minutes of asking someone did so. When I got on there, I just decided to go as far as I could without really leaving the state of New York.

I had some money, though I knew it was not enough and I had plenty of clothes. Maybe I could not eat for a few days and buy a water bottle.  I did not think this through and I was being stupid, but this was normal for a teenager.

The night rolled by and I found that the subway was stopping at a city named Gotham. I found that I was sleeping when the announcer said had told the passengers this. Sounded like no one was getting out so I walked out of the subway (it was getting too crowded for me anyways). Once I got out of there, I soon regretted it. You could taste the pollution is the air. I found myself wanting to throw up from such toxins in the air. How could anyone live like this? I thought my city was bad with that sort of thing, but here it was worse. Maybe I should have left New York, or the rural area. Maybe I should have left for a smaller town that was calm and nice? I highly doubted that I could have though. I didn’t know if they subway could go that far.

Truth be told, I had never ever rode on one before that day. It was always too loud and for someone like me, I did not need that. I kept walking into the streets, tapping my cane all over the place, no one talked to me, which was nice. I thought that someone surely would have walked up to me and try and mug me, but the people most likely did not see the point in doing that to me. After all, I had nothing worth of much value aside from what I thought was important to me.

Maybe this was just a wealthy city and they thought of as some sort of street rat. Oh well! As long as nothing happened to me, I was fine! Things were going to be fine, I reminded myself. If I was smart and kept my distance from anything that seems strange or odd, then I’ll be safe! It seemed so easy if I thought about it. I began to wonder to myself why I could not do this in a quicker time.

That is, until I bumped into someone. I mean, really bumped into. I fell on my ass because the person, felt like a man, that I bumped into must have been heavy. Or well fitted into the ground. I could have bumped into a statue. Tisking myself, and rubbing my hand quickly on my back because I did not want to rub my rump in front of the public eye, I quickly said that I was sorry to the person and tried to walk on. I patted myself down when I realised that there was a bit of dust on myself, only now noticing that my mind made little to no sense when I monolog things, but it is my head, I could help it.

I felt like if I stayed around for much longer I would have been killed or something of the sort, but a hand (it felt rough it had quite a grip) grabbed my shoulder. I froze, thinking to myself that this is not what I needed that I would die. Why was I so stupid?

“Kid, you all right? You fell pretty hard.” The voice asked, I was right about it being a male.

I did not turn my head to make it look like I was facing him. “Yes, I am fine. Great to be honest. Now please let me go. I have to go else where.” I answered quickly, trying my best to avert his voice from my head.

There was a moment of silence, then the man spoke up again. “You’re blind, aren’t you? Well shit, now I feel guilty and I don’t even know why!”

“Don’t worry about it too much, okay?” I swatted his hand from my shoulder in a polite manner. “It happens all of the time and it’s my fault every single time that it does occur.”

“Christ sake, it was not! You didn’t even notice I was there, the street is- Wait, what is up with the violin case you’re holding?”  His tone seemed to have some worry to it, but why would he care?

“It’s just a violin, I don’t even know you, so let me on-”

“Yeah, I call bulshit to that statement. Listen; this isn’t really a safe place and it is past curfew for your time so I think you should go back to wherever you came from, or whatever. I don’t know, maybe you’re like me and like to li-”

“Mister, I think it’s best that I be on my way.” I muttered under my breath, trying my best to avoid much more of this topic.

“As I was sa-”

“Who are you?” I asked, becoming rather annoyed this man would not leave me alone.

“Right, should’ve introduced ourselves before hand, right? Jason’s the name. What’s yours?” Jason answered. He sounded like a Jason.

“Morgan.” I answered quickly. It was not my birth name, but I went by it. Besides, nobody would go looking for a Morgan Kingsley Stephens in New York, so I was pretty safe at the moment. “I’m Morgan and my violin case is fine. Now can you please leave me alone? I-”

“Kid, are you running away? From here?” He asked.

The question stung a little. I had hoped that no one would ask me, so I shrugged. “Does it matter in the first place? Why do you care?”

“Don’t know. Maybe because you’re blind and it would suck if you were to get mugged and all of the crap. Now to the big question, you running away?”

I didn’t answer for a moment. Finding it odd that this whole time we were talking we kept walking on. I had no idea where I had planned on going, but I was getting further and further away from home. Maybe this man knew of a safe place to where I could go? I didn’t want to ask because it would be strange to do so. “I guess you can say that. In reality I am trying to teach him a lesson.”

“Uh-huh... What lesson might that be?”

“I’m trying to teach him that grounding me for no reason at all  is a pointless thing to do because I will always get out of it in some way.”

“Stepfather?”

“No. Real father.”

Things were quiet for a moment before Jason spoke again. “Listen; I’m not good with kids and all, but I know that you shouldn’t run away from whatever happened between you and your dad. Unless he happened to be abusing you. Then you call the police for that, though there are times where they don’t really help out with things.” He was speaking too fast for my to care what he was saying, I just kept walking.

“We had a fight, I told you this already! Nothing much to it aside from that. I mean, he is a good dad! For me that is. I am not really a people’s person, really he is the only person I could handle for many hours of the day. He works a lot though, so I’m never really to have long talks with him.” Now I was speaking far more than I should have. I highly doubted that this stranger cared at this point too.

“How long have you been away from your home then?”

“I don’t even have a clue.”

“A few hours?”

“Might be. What time is it now?”

“I don’t carry a watch around me at all times! Geez, I’m guessing it’s early in the morn-”

“WHAT?!” I yelped out. I could hear that this startled the man by the sudden speed of his heart pounding, but in slowed down a little bit afterwards.

“Yeah. Kind of doing this night patrol thing until you bumped into me... Hey, you hungry? ‘Cause I’m starving!”

“Uh, no, not really-” I stopped myself, when would I get the time to have free food like this again during this? “You know what, I kind of am!”

“Great.” He grabbed my hand, again the grip was far too tight for my liking. He began to walk faster to the point where I knew he was in front of me. I almost tripped on my feet. Which was strange to me because I thought that I was pretty good on my feet. “Have you ever had back alley way food?” He asked quickly.

Why was he holding my hand? Oh well, might’ve thought that was better than just telling me where to go. “My father never took me out for food, so I had to learn how to make things myself, besides restaurants never had the appeal to me in the first place.” I answered.

“You taught yourself how to cook? How can a blind person cook without sight? I mean, doesn’t that equal out to cutting your fingers a lot?”

“It does. I have the scars to prove it too!” I was quite proud of them to be honest. They reminded me that I never gave up a fight when I was determined to win or learn something.

“Whoa. That was way too happy! Do you need help?” Jason laughed softly while he said this.

“I don’t know, I have worse cuts on my body. I am proud of all of them if I were to be honest.”  I answered underneath my breath.

 

“Okay then... As I was saying, I know this pretty cheap pizza place that is pretty good, I am kind of craving that at the moment and since you’re here I thought I should do my one good deed of the day and treat you to some.” He told me, his grip on my hand getting tighter which made me feel really uncomfortable.

“Thank you for that, it is awfully kind of you to do this, but I am kind of a vegan. Do they only sell pizza?” I questioned. I didn’t know why I said I was vegan, but the idea of hot greasy food setting foot into my mouth just made me feel sick.

“They have a salad bar, but I’m not into that kind of stuff right now.” He answered. “Tell you the truth; I’m never into it.”

I chuckled when he said that. I heard a door open and smelt the food that overwhelmed the area. It was indeed an area that made pizza their life, I really felt like I should’ve thrown up. I told myself not to. I didn’t really hear a lot of voices but I also smelt alcohol in the air. I did not want to cause attention on the man who happened to be buying me food so I did not say to

him that I was only seventeen.

“Jason Peter Todd!” I heard a man call out. “Long night, huh?”  He asked, he sounded like he was far away and his voice was scruffy, but it seemed nice. 

“Been all right, pretty boring day to be honest. I really wanted to have a fight or something tonight! But I guess something in the air has made everyone pretty calm or whatever.” Jason answered, getting closer to the scruffy voiced man. He was still holding my hand which at this point made me want to squirm out of it.

He reached the counter and sat on one of the chairs at last letting go of my hand. “Hey, Morgan, sit down.” He commanded to me. Shocked by his tone of vice, I sat down.

“Who’s this?” The man asked him politely. “He looks a little too young to be on the streets.”

“Oh? He’s is a runaway. His name’s Morgan, or at least that’s what he told me. He’s pretty nice, I guess.” He answered, nudging his elbow on my arm. At least he was telling the truth. I guess. Though I didn’t like him talking about me like I was not there.

“You know, I’m right here.” I said under my breath.

“Right, right. Why’d you run away from home, kiddo?” The man asked.

 

“A stupid fight with my dad. Nothing that bad, but I was an idiot and thought that I was smarter than him and left in a hurry.” I answered, I was picking at my scabs that were on my fingers.

“Sounds like a teenage thing to do.” Jason laughed out. I could hear the smile of his face.

“Indeed. In fact, it seems like something you would do. If you didn’t beat your dad up before running off.” The man said with a low chuckle. He turned his back and handed the other man that was sitting next to me a glass.  
“That’s low, don’t bring my dad into this.” Jason said after he was done taking a sig of his drink from his glass, he coughing a little from it.

“Right, forgot. So, what are you here for?”

“I’m hungry and so is this kid. Do you have any vegan food for him?”

“Not really, aside from the salad bar. By the way, you’re being awfully nice to this kid.” The man leaned on the counter, whispering something into Jason’s ear, I was sure of it. He might of thought that I couldn’t hear him if he were to whisper ?something, but I did hear what he had to say. “Is it because he is a red head?”                  

I knew this nearly made the other man jump. “No, that’s not my thing!” He said a little too quickly for comfort for my taste.

The room was awkwardly silent for a minute, for the moment it was best to be quiet. I remember being told that talking without being told to do so was never a good idea. I couldn’t help it though, I let out a giggle and waited for someone to tell me that I shouldn’t have done that, but Jason sat down again and told the man at the counter to give him his order.

“You sure you’re really vegan? You could just set aside those beliefs or whatever for  the night. I won’t tell anyone.” He was teasing me, I knew this, but I shrugged.  

“Maybe one night, as long as the pizza doesn’t have meat on it.” I told him with a slight smile.

“Sweet. Order for two cheese pizzas then. Sounds fair to me.”

“You’re not buying  me a whole pizza! There’s no fucking way I’m-” I clamped my mouth shut tight when I shouted this. I had no place in shouting.

Jason laughed loudly at this, he may have been either drunk or he must’ve thought that was stupidly funny. Something lame like that. “Dude, don’t worry about swearing! I ain't judging you.”  
“It’s just not something I do. It’s a waste of breath.” I quickly explained which made him chuckle.

“Are you dying?” He asked playfully.

“No. I’m not dying, I just do not want to waste my breath in case I do die someday. So I can have all of my unwasted breath to waste when that day comes.”  I explained to him. It was difficult to say why I wanted that because I was sure that if it were to happen, I would be okay with death coming into my life.  

“Wow. That’s some deep thinking right there. I give you cheers on that.” He told me. Once the glass of whatever he had been drinking was finished, he slammed it on the counter.  
When we got the pizza, we ate it in silence, but when that was over with, we talked for awhile. We were just messing around, telling each other jokes but anytime I asked him a question he would avoid it and ask me tons of questions. It was somewhat tiring answering all of these questions.

Do you live with both parents?

No. I’ve lived with only my dad my whole life. I don’t know my mother that well, but in all honesty I do not mind that.

How old are you?

That is nothing that you should be worried about.

It’s of my right to do so if I took you into a bar.

Seventeen.

No way! I thought you were older than, well, really, you look younger than seventeen. I’ll act like I’m surprised by how young you are though. Okay, so tell me, what is your house life like living with a single father and being blind?

Uh, it’s pretty normal. As normal as it can be I guess. He’s busy with work often and we rarely find the time to talk, but when we do we usually get along.

After a few more questions, we went back to joking around. It was refreshing to have someone that I could relate to in some way. It was nice to have someone to talk to really. That wasn’t so sad about life and talked about only that. He had me wheezing at one point from laughter, I don’t recall what he said that had me laughing so hard, but it was silly.  
That is when he brought up something about this guy called Batman. I had no idea who that was, so I just thought it was a man’s head on this body of a bat. I said this out loud which made him laugh because he imagined how that looked like.

He began to explain what it would have been like if Manbat came in and took this Batman’s place. Then he started to laugh out about this giant bat flying around, making these annoying bat sounds. Jason would laugh hard at how this was playing out in his head, he would keep going about the whole topic at hand though.

“He just flies around the city, cawing because he’s so confused as to what he is, just... Flying around! And..” He giggled out, “I can’t even think of the mes he would make! I mean, he would just shit everywhere!”  
I choked back a laugh as well as a little pizza, I could not believe that he would go into the direction in topic over something that really did not need to be discussed.

“Ah, I can just see this. Officer Gordon looking up in the sky while the police clean up the piles of shit that was left behind by him. He cleanses his fist, a tear drains from his left eye as he whispers ‘Such a mighty hero!’. I can just see that and then Manbat caws again and shits on his face!”  
I must have had a horrified expression because he stopped discussing this. “You have a strange sense of humour...” I said to him.

He let out a giggle then we went back to talking. He told me about his brothers and a little bit about his father. A wealthy man that went by the name of Bruce Wayne. Jason seemed to sound a little bittersweet while he talked about this Wayne figure, so I tried not to speak of him. It seemed rude if I kept doing so.

He began to ask things about my father, I answered all of them with much truth, but sometimes they became a little odd.

Is he a good caretaker?

Yes. He is. He is perfect for me.

Then why would you run away from such a great parent if you love them so much?

I guess I needed some space from him.

 

You rarely get to talk to him though.

I understand this, but I feel as if he or I will grow tired of each other if we spend too much time with one another.  
That’s really weird to think about. I’m sorry, but how does that mind set even work? You love each other, you do not spend enough-

You are nothing to me in my life aside from a stranger, mister Jason!

I stood up out of anger, my face hot from this sudden person in my life wanting to know so much about me. It made me more than upset. “You have no right to get into my mind like you knew me for years! I do not even know who You are! So stop it! Please!”

There was an awkward, I felt stupid. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“You meant every word of it. Don’t feel bad about it.” He chuckled, then he grabbed my wrist for me to sit back down. I suppose I was causing a scene, which made my face even more hotter than it should’ve been.

“Try not to worry so much about such a simple thing, all right? Not your fault. I just have bad trust issues. Like you. Hell, they might be worse than yours.”  He said to me while bumping my shoulder.

I frowned. I felt like I really was just being a little twat to him. “Still, I’m sorry for yelling at you. I shouldn’t have. I mean, here you are, wanting to talk to me, wanting to know about me, buying pizza for me! It’s all rather nice and this is something I would expect out of a date, but I’m not that kind of guy. I mean, I may like guys but you can not just get into my pants because you did all of this for me!”

I heard him make a small gasp, but I kept going, I needed to say this. “Maybe one day we can be a couple, or maybe we are friends, or maybe you’ll always be a stranger to me! I don’t know, I can’t see the futu-”

“You can’t see anything at all.” He corrected me.

“Fuck off. Let me finish what I have to say.  It is nice that you’re doing this. You are pretty fun to be around as well, but if you’re only doing this to sleep with me or to only have a one night stand with me then you have another thing coming! I am free. I am myself. I know what is best for me and everyone else around me! I have my r-”

“I promise I’m not trying to sleep with you.”

“Welllllll...” I dragged out saying. “...If that is the case, then thank you for doing all of this for me.”

There was an awkward silence between he and I until he spoke again. “What happened to you to make you react that way?”

“What? What way?”

“That way. All yelly, getting up and stomping your foot down. I was afraid that you were going to run out because... I don’t know! I don’t think I said anything wrong!”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not just some spoiled brat from a lawyer who never pays attention to me, all right? I understand why he can’t. He’s busy with a lot of things, but I am bitter over how that panned out with our relationship.” I became quiet, but I knew Jason wanted to hear more of what of what I had to say. I gave him a sigh. “Things happen, odd stuff. It has made me become not so sweet anymore. Everyday I feel my innocence slip away from me. I feel like I am not even able to fully be there for my friends. Which makes me feel horrible. It’s more of the fact that I’m not going with speaking towards people.”

I thought of what I should say next, but I muttered under my breath, “It’s hard just finding the courage to wake up in the morning when you can’t even see the light of a new day...”  
He muttered something under his breath when I finished what I had to say. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

 


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What do I have to say...? This is a second round to what I had made when my boyfriend told me that I should keep going with this story but fix it up a little.  
> So this is what I made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found these stories in sets of emails given to my boyfriend, so I am missing some parts, and I also changed things up- So, I am very sorry if it gets confusing and weird. From the looks of it, it seems to go into more detail about what is going on with Morgan and Jason..? In other words, I think there is more talking and detail in this then there was in the first, but that could just be me?  
> Some of the set up is brought back... Please bare with me as much as I am baring with my younger self.

 

“Do I look like I carry a watch around at all times?” He asked defensively. I heard a slap and a long groan.   


“I wouldn’t- Wait a second, was that a blind joke?” I asked, getting close to him now, I was pointing an accusing finger but I didn’t know where I was pointing it at.   


He pushed my hand away and said, “No, I wasn’t. It just came out that way, I swear.” He replied kind of in a shy manner. Odd. “I don’t know... Last time I checked it was already midnight and I’m guessing it’s about a few hours later now...?”   


“WHAT?!” I choked a little. Then coughed. “What did you say?” I inquired quickly, massaging my Adam’s apple from that unexpected gagging. I shook my head a little and frowned. Did that much time really pass or was I not paying any attention? Such foolishness on my part!   


“Hey, uh... Morgan, calm down! Nothing bad, it’s nothing bad!” Jason attempted but failed in calming me down but I couldn’t help it, I was sweating and close to screaming.   


How could I do that?! How could I be so possibly foolish?! I was close to screaming, but that would not be wise and I did not want to look more witless than I already had so far that day.

“What’re you even worried about in the first place? If you were running away from home most people would be happy that it took them this many hours to get that far away! Unless that wasn’t your plan at all and you came here by mistake.” He seem to be off in a rambling fit which didn’t ease my mind. I almost felt faint in a way.

I wanted to tell him to stop talking or to shut up, but I stopped myself from doing so. I wasn’t into being upset. That was something I just do not do. Expect I was very close to it. The closet I have been to doing it in a long time. “Kid, you okay?”   


I didn’t even know I had my arms close to me, shaking a little. No, I was trembling. I must have looked stupid doing that, but none of the less I was worried that I did something wrong.   


“Are you alright?” He asked more sternly.   


“I..I honestly do not know if I can be fine...” I replied.   


“Hey, listen to me: Everything will be okay. You did what you wanted and you got far. You’re doing a great job!” I could hear him smiling. It wasn’t something cruel, a true smile but it was not something I wanted to have someone do for me.   


“B-but I... I don’t even know this city!” I almost felt like I was about to cry but that would have been silly. Definitely overreacting.   


“Aha! So I was right!” Jason sounded like he was some sort of champion of a big prize.   


“Yes, you were! Happy now?”   


“Ah, kid, don’t be so upset...” He trailed off for a moment. “Are you hungry? ‘Cause I am starving!”   


“Uh...” I was so hungry, but I still didn’t know if I could trust him or not.   


“Come on, it’s on the house and I can even let you stay at my place.”   


“UH...” Was the only way I could  respond with. Maybe he was being kind towards me... Maybe I can trust him. Plus, here was a man offering me free food and shelter! When was that even going to happen again? “Yes, I am very ravenous and I appreciate you offering your home to me and I will gladly take that. Thank you.”   


“Not only are you welcome, you are pretty smart too.” He chuckled a little.   


“How so?” I asked, very confused.   


“First you showed that you didn’t trust me, then you started to think-- I could just hear your head working like clockwork! Then you started to really think about it ‘Free food, free house?’ and then you agreed to it because you wo-”   


“Can you read minds or something?” I asked yet again.   


He laughed more loudly. Almost wheezing. “No, I can’t do that! Wish I could thought ‘cause I could stop asking so many questions! Buuuut at the same time I’m happy I can’t ‘cause it would suck having to hearing everyone all at the same time.”   


I almost ran into a pole, I reached my hand out and climbed of the stump it was on, I spun around on it because why the hell not and got back down to the street. “I understand what you mean, it would indeed stink if a person would have to hear everything. What would their child be like while going to school? That would have been horrible.”   


“No doubt ‘bout that. School was already hell for me when I was in it.” He patted my shoulder which made me jump a little.   


“Same here.” I hated school. It was difficult to handle all of those different smells and the voices were too much. People bumping into me and vise-versa. It was a pain in the ass to say the least. Going into detail, school was one of the places I never wanted to go into.   


“Aren’t you still in school?”   


“I was expelled.”   


“Oh...”   


“A few days ago in fact.”   


“Damn, what did you do to make school kick you out?”   


“I sort of beat the living hell out of this one guy that wouldn’t leave me alone.” I explained, kind of rubbing the back of my neck while explaining.   


“Was he putting you in the corner?”   


“A little.” I was feeling kind of odd... This man really wanted to know me.   


I now remember that the reason why I did that to that man was because he stole my journal and began to make fun of the things I wrote down in it. It got out of line at one point and I at first punched his jaw and then the next thing I knew I was on top of him, punching his face, I can still remember the smell of the blood that was on the floor and on my hands. I was growling and I didn’t know I was able to do that!   


And that is when everything else happened. That is how I got suspended and that is what made my father ground me and that is when I ran away from home.   


“How about when we get to where we’re gonna eat you can tell me why. How about that?” He asked me, he brushed his elbow to my side and that made me smile wide. Then I jumped over the touch. I wasn’t expecting that until it was too late.   


“Not too touchy.” It was more of a realization than a question.   


“Yeah... I just- I am not into people touching.” I assured him. Truth is: I loved touching people but it just stopped suddenly when I was pretty young. I am not quite sure what made it stop but suddenly, like a drop of a hat, even the slightest touch made me jump. I guess that was normal to people because most understood right off the bat.   


I was never not into touching people like my father or having my siblings touch me either-- Goodness, that sounded a lot worse than it really is!   


“Understood. Sucks though, you might have to get used to that again.”   


A strange feeling crept through me. What was he implying? “How about this...” I brushed my hands together, biting my bottom lip. It felt plumbed today, kind of puffy, “...We have that  meal together and I’ll decide if I will stay with you, sounds fair?”   


“Yeah, it does. Honestly I was a little surprised that you agreed to stay with me so quickly.”   


“Yet you understood why...” Something kept screaming at me to run, get away from this man but I felt as if he was... He was safe. I felt connected in a way. “Either way I am happy you are going out of your way for me. To help me that is.”   


He touched my shoulder gently. “No problem, kiddo.”   


I flinched a little. Maybe it was because we barely knew each other or maybe because I.. I missed having people touch me without pulling back. Or maybe.. Maybe it was because when he did touch me, I felt something. Something that was tingling and it was nice.   


“Sorry, I forgot!” He lifted his hand up.   


“No, it’s fine!” I really like the way that feels.   


Darn it head. I curse the sun that gives you life!   


“Ohoho, is it now? What changed- Ahh, here we go!” Jason took my wrist and opened the door to some place. “Have you ever had back alley food?” He asked me while we got inside the area.   


I could smell pizza being made in ovens, burgers being fried and alcohol. Was this a pub? Was I in a Pub?!   


“My dad was never into eating out so he taught me how to cook by myself along with him.” I explained, rubbing my hands together frantically. That was something I did if I was becoming too worried.   


“Consider this a beginning step to the first chapter of your life then!” He squeezed my shoulders a little.   


He leaned on me suddenly, I could feel his breath, it was hot and a little wet but it wasn’t unpleasant. “I should’ve asked a little earlier but how old are you anyways?” He was whispering now.   


“Seventeen.” I answered just as softly.   


“Wow!” He spoke up a little more.  
“What?” I turn my head to face his.  


“I thought you were twelve, oh thank God you are not!” He clapped his hands together and I heard a sounds like he was rubbing the together. “You just look so much younger than you are. Might take me awhile to believe that you are your age but still.”   


“I know for a damn well fact I am the age I claim to be.” I assured him which made him laugh softly.   


“Either way we have to convince the people that you are older than that.”   


“Yeah, I know.” I sort of pushed him off of me. So this was a pub that he brought me into? Some way to start a ‘New Life’ with.   


“Don’t be so upset with me! Lets just have fun with this, okay?”   


“Okay, I’ll try my best.”   


I could swear I heard him murmur ‘Good boy’ to me. We sat at a table and waited for something to give our menus to us. When a voice of a young woman came in, I heard her voice.   


“Evening to you boys, here’s your menus and drinks-” She began with what I guess was her routine lines that she gave to people who came here until Jason interrupted her.   


“Sorry Hope, but this love guy can’t read what’s on there.” He corrected her.   


“Oh, sorry for the confusion! Um... Well we don’t have those kinds of menus but you would willing to read him what’s on there, right?” She asked Jason. With the way her tone was, it almost sounded she was flirting with him.   
  


“I was planning on it.” He told her, he sounded a little annoyed.   


Maybe it was because this woman was asking him something despite him knowing he was going to do it, may have been for other reasons, I didn’t want to know at all. Something in the back of my mind told me that he didn’t like to be told what to do (I kind of respected that) or to have his intelligence be questioned.   


I understood that.   


“Thank you for getting it out in the first place, dear.” I told her anyways.   


“Okay, I’ll be coming back in a few when you’re ready to make your orders!” She told us and I heard a ‘Bye’ that was soft. Ugh, lord tell me she isn’t flirting with either of us.   


“Sorry ‘bout that. I don’t even know her but she knows me somehow.” He explained.   


“Oh, so you have a creepy fangirl stalker without your clue..” I wiggled in my seat, smiling, close to laughing a little.

 

“Don’t even remind me of it, it happens almost all of the time.” He was chuckling a little and I could tell that he was shrugging and that he wore a smile on his face while shaking his head. “Do you have anything preferences with any kind of food?”   


“I am a vegetarian.”   


“What?! That’s insane? How could someone not eat meat? Man, I can’t think of giving that up. I eat it all  of the time. Soo good!”   


“I just do not like it compared to other types of food. There’s better types other than meat. I mean- at least I’m not vegan.”   


“Hnn. That’s true, if you were that be a pain in the fucking ass.”   


“Oh, tell me about it. My older brother is one and he is such a little- We should get to the orders, shouldn’t we?”   


“Right, right. Okay, so I’m guessing you would like to have a salad, cheese pizza and... Wow... I forgot how much this place relies on meat...” Jason muttered to himself after that.   


Maybe that was one of the reasons my dad never took me out. My whole family was vegetarian. He also thought that homemade food is always better than even food from a five star restaurant. I believe that before he became a lawyer, he wanted to become a chef. He cooks the best food, I swear.   


“Guess I brought you to the wrong place, but the desserts look like they might be up your alley! Unless you’re also not into sweets. If that’s the case, what is wrong with you?” He was teasing me, I knew it.   


“Just to let you know, I love sweets. I love it to the point where I would only eat that all day if I could.”   


“Mm, good taste. Would you like to just do it then or would you like some pizza before then?”   


“I’ve...” I trailed off a little. “...I’ve never had pizza before quite frankly.”   


“You’ve never lived then, this place has some pretty nice pizza let me tell you.”   


“I hear that pizza is pretty good, I just don’t like how it smells.” I went quiet for a moment. I wasn’t quite sure what else to say other than I thought they smelt gross and greasy.   


“You’ve never smelt good pizza then, kid.”   


“Is that so?” I asked, gaining yet another smile. I didn’t understand what was so charming about him but he kept making me smile and it was really nice. I wasn’t really someone who smiled too often.   


“Yeah! Trust me, once you have some you will be addicted to it. I might have to send you to rehab because you will become so addicted to it!”   


“Why are you being so nice to me?” I whispered.   


“Was staying up late to find something to do when I came across you. Plus I need to do my one good deed for today. So why not help you out? Hope that helps you out.”   


I had to give this question chance. “Were you following me when I walked out of the subway station?”   


“What...?”   


“Ah, it’s nothing, ignore what I had asked.”   


“No, I am not going to. Why would you ask that? Were you being followed?”   


“I don’t know.”   


I felt rattling coming from my pocket where the bottle of pills were. God I hope he didn’t hear that. “I don’t think I was. I am just a very paranoid person, trust me.”   


“Hnn, I can understand that. I guess I am too.”

 

It must have been awhile because the woman came back (I’m going to call her ‘Hope’ from now on), I could smell her over dosage of perfume, it made me cough a little. “Hello again, what would you boys like to order?” I swear I could just hear a smile on her face.   


“I’ll have a large steak, medium rare. No sauce and I’m in the mood for Ginger Ale tonight.”   


“No drinks? Wow, that’s the first, Jay! Are you on a d-”   


“I just don’t want any tonight.”   


“Oh, okay... And what would you like?” She sounded more hopeful when she asked me that.   


“I would like a medium sized cheese pizza with a glass of ice water, please.”   


“Can do!” She clicked her pen, tearing the paper she must have been writing on right off. There was the sound of her heels tap as she walked away from the table we were sitting.   


There was a long silence.   


“Where are you from?” He asked, he was tapping his fingers on the table.   


I didn’t know how to answer this question so instead, I took some paper napkins out of it’s dispenser and started to fold them. Once they were folded in the way I liked it, I started to rip the napkins apart.   


“I’m from Blüdhaven.” I answered slowly. Before I entered into the subway, I felt the imprint of the name so it is better to say I was from there.   


“Awfully close to here but you don’t seem like you have ever heard of this place.”   


“Well I am from there.” Is all I could muster up and say with confidence. “Then at the age of ten, I moved to North Ireland to live with my family. At the age of fifteen I moved to Queens, New York.” The last part is true though.   


“Mhm... You were sent to live in North Ireland with your family? Where were you living before then?”   


“You wanna know something? You sure ask a lot more questions then you need to know, Jason.”   


“Sorry..” He sighed a little and seemed like he was pulling his bangs while talking. “Something I do, besides wouldn’t you ask a lot of questions to some wandering kid on the streets?”   


“Admittedly, I am someone who takes great pride in asking questions to people but I highly doubt that you are not in the mood to have things turned around. Besides, I am going to be your roommate. In a way I suppose so it is best if you get to know me before you regret anything in the end.” I did want to know more about Jason, but that becking in my head kept telling me that it would be best that I knew the least about the young man.   


He snapped his fingers. “You’re pretty clever when it comes to this, have you done this more than once?”   


More than I would like to admit. “I wouldn’t say that I have...”   


Hope came back to us with our drinks. Once she set mine on the table, I chugged it down quickly. She giggled at that and walked away.   


“Right... Can you just tell me if I get into a touchy subject?”   


“I think you already have, dear.” I cracked my knuckles and took my glasses off, massaging the bridge of my nose after all of that.   


“Have I? Dude, I’m so sorry. I just like to ask questions because of things that have happened to me in the past.” He explained suddenly.   


“I get it, I understand. You have nothing to worry over. I just would like to ask you things later on- Don’t you dare tell me that you’re someone who ask questions and avoids the other parties. That’s just not a fair game, Jason.”   


“I don’t play fair.”   


“You’ll have to grow used to doing that for me then for so h-”  
Hope brought us our food. Damn, Jason was right. I never was given a chance to have smell good pizza. It was literally making me drool, oh, I was drooling, I whipped my mouth and dug right in when Hope left.  


“Pretty good, right?”   


I nodded quickly and kept on eating. “So good!” I sang out once I swallowed my third bite.   


“Wow, how long has been since you last ate, geez!”   


“I have no idea, but I am happy I have been given the chance to eat this.”   


I kept on eating every little bit. Once I was done I was listening to him eat his meal. From the sounds, he was a messy eater. I almost expected him to start talking with his mouth full. No, he would not be that untamed. I waited for him to be done for ten minutes.   
Then it hit me- He was watching me eat. Why? Wouldn’t that be considered creepy? Maybe it was how he did things. I was in no mood to call him out on it. He devoured it quickly. Almost as if he waited too long or something.   


“Did you enjoy your meal?” I asked, when I laid my chin on my knuckles while I leaned closer onto the table.   


“Could have had more, but I did. How about you?” He placed his utensils on his plate and popped his fingers.   


“You were right, it was fucking- Sorry, it was so good!” I admitted when I covered my mouth when I cursed. My voice was muffled which I anticipated.   


“Kid, if there is anyone you should be comfortable with cussing along to, that’s me.” He leaned on the table. I could smell his breath again. It was... Comforting in a way. Despite the smell of cigarettes and meat.

 

“I get it that many people do it, but I just find it a waste of breath and when I am on my death bed, I want to waste the breath I didn’t when I was young. Ah, it’s pointless to even explain why I don’t do it.” I sighed out.   


“You’re one strange guy.” Jason commented.   


“I do not mind it that I am.” I shrugged a little and smiled shyly at him.   


Hope walked up to us yet again. “Are you wanting the bill or you both in the mood for dessert?”   


“Well?” Jason asked me.   


“Yes!” I chirped. There was a bit of a silence when I made that sound.   


“All right, give us a surprise.”   


“Are you sure, Jay?”   


“Alright, give him a sunday and give me a surprise.”   


“Can do!”   


I laid my cheek on the cool table, feeling slightly troubled for no reason. I started to pick at the scars on my fingers from the times I accidently slash them while I was chopping some vegetables up for main platters that was intended to be given to during dinner for my family and I. It’s happened many times before.   


“Where are you from?” I asked him.   


“I’m from this hell hole, but it’s home. Kinda hard to leave...” He trailed off for a few seconds. “Don’t like thinking ‘bout the past.”   


“Oh. Well now. That’s fine.” I crossed my arms after I was picking at my fingers. “I’m not into thinking about the past myself.”   


“I highly doubt you’ve been through that much.”   


“You don’t know me, for all you know, I could have been a slave.” I stuck my nose up in the air a little, more to smell around. There wasn’t many people around but there was this thick... Straining sort of aroma that suddenly came in. “I wasn’t though and that wasn’t even funny to think of, I just kind of spoke without reflecting of my actions.”   


“It gets the best of us, I suppose.” He told me with a shuffle of his clothing.   


“Bet you’ve met the best of people. How old are you?” I asked with a smile along my face as I leaned further on the table. Something began to burn, which was a strange to feel when it wasn’t me that was burning up.   


“25.” He claimed too quickly. I bet he was darting his eyes away so he wouldn’t have to keep looking right at me.   


Odd that he was worried about telling me his age. I didn’t find it that big of a deal. I was happy that he was older than me. I don’t know why, I just have always felt more like myself around older people. Maybe it was because I felt like I didn’t have to live up to anything with them unlike kids my own age that I never got along with in the first place.   


I never understood why talking with one’s peers makes them out to be better with life or jobs and such when reality most people are going to meet someone younger or older than them. I like kids, but adults make me feel safe. Just like little kids feel towards adults. Though I guess it is an odd comparison.   


“Why be so worried that you’re eight years older than I? It’s not like you were trying to sleep with me, yes?” I laughed with my hand covering my mouth.   


“Noooo, no, No. Morgan. You see... I’m not into that kind of shit. By that I mean, I am not into fucking minors because I think a stud or some shit like that- just no. I just wanna help you out.” He began to drink out of his glass of Ginger Ale, slurping it loudly.   


“Where’s our next order?” He asked loudly.   


“It’s coming right up, boys! Don’t worry about it too much.” Hope called out.   


There is a moment of silence again. I tapped my fingers on the table. Jason kept on drinking his soda.   


“What’s the rest of your family li-”   


“Crossing the bonds, Jason.”   


“Oh. Right. Sorry.”   


“But I do have six siblings. I’m the youngest of them and a little bit of the rut of the litter as well.” I thought that I might as well tell him a little bit about my family life. It was only fair. “I had a mom but she died of an illness.”

Things began to settle down after awhile when I told him that, he seemed really upset about what I had told him. “Don’t worry about it... I barely even knew her.” I tried to reassure him.   
  
“Yeah, but everyone should have a mom..”   
  
He might have been raised by a single mother so I could understand that claim. I left it at that. I didn’t want to worry him any further. Soon we began to eat our desserts and we talked a little more then. About nothing for the most part, I asked him what Gotham is like and he responded with, ‘It has it’s charm but for the most part it’s a hell hole.’   
I, of course, laughed at that. I highly doubted that a place could be that bad. I even said that out loud but he kept telling me that it was that awful.   
  
Awful. He called the place in other words, dreadful. I asked why he keeps staying here and he admitted that he still doesn’t know why.   
  
“I have traveled around the world though. I guess I can’t get away... I have this thing in my head that keeps telling me that I am needed. Even if I’m not. I keep telling myself that I mean something- if not to the world then maybe here. I don’t know though, I might be dulated.” He confessed to me.   
  
“No, no. I can understand what you mean. It’s hard to find a name anywhere, but but you think that if you can be somebody, it would have to be here, right?”   
  
“Guess so.”   
  
We talked even more. Where he has been, what his favourite place was. It was an interesting topic and I enjoyed talking about the different ideals of culture with him. He was pretty smart, but also a slippery person. He wasn’t the type to answer anyone for what they ask to him often. Unless one were to bend the question around, he would say that he didn’t like the topic choice and he would not talk about it any longer- More so, he wouldn’t talk to you if you asked something rude about him.   
He was shockingly a sensitive guy. It was pretty nice to know that he was because that was rather rare to find in a person. Though it was shockingly considering some of the things he was said to me. Sometimes he was coming across as a crazy guy, but I didn’t think he was. He was just different.   
  
We all are different and if we happened to all be alike, that would just be a boring parade.   
  
“So, do you wanna live with me for a bit?” He asked softly.   
  
I had to think about it. I really did.

“Yes.” I answered.   
  
  
*   
  
  
“Hope you don’t mind the tiny space, since I’m living on my own, I just thought it would save money...” Jason begun while he unlocked his front door.   
  
Turns out that he lived in a studio apartment that was in the central area of the city. He kept telling me that it wasn’t the most prettiest looking place and it might smell but it was a nice fit for him and he felt at home every time he entered into the place.   
  
“...Guess that’s gotta change now!” He began to mutter things to himself about going back to see his father and that he wasn’t in the mood for that shit.   
  
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” I reassured him. “I mean, where I lived, it was really large because my parents were raising a lot of kids at that point before me so when they all moved out and my mother was... No longer there this huge house was-”   
  
“You’ve never lived in a small place?” He asked, seeming to be impressed.   
  
“Uh... No.” I answered, a little surprised that this was shocking.   
  
“Huh. Well, you have a small place now.” He opened the door now. “I have a shit load of locks to be safe.” He explained, might have been because of the time it was taking to open it.   
  
“Understood... Seems like a place where one would need that sort of thing.”   
  
There was some shuffling, I guess it was from him walking in and taking his jacket off. “Are you coming in or are you going to take a second chance and run away from me?”   
  
I was take aback, yet again by this man. I nodded and entered into his small loft. Despite the fact that he kept calming it was small, the living area was pretty decently sized from the time I walked around it.   
To shoot from the hip, it was large. In fact, it was a little too spacious even without extra rooms within the building.   
  
“You know, it’s actually pretty b-” I felt a rush below the calf of my legs, as if something was moving and the sudden sound of woofing. I put my back against the wall, afraid that something was going to jump out at me and eat me alive!   
  
“Aye, it’s Taco!” Jason called out from the distance.   
  
“It’s what?” I croaked.   
  
“How’s my baby girl? How’s she? Didja miss your daddy? Aww, come ‘ere girl!” Jason sounded like he was smiling ear to ear while giggling to this ‘Taco’ creature. “Taco’s my pet pitbull. She’s the best one there is! Aren’t ‘ja girl?”   
  
“Ah... Okay.” Of course she was a dog. There would be no way in the world he was a cat person.   
  
“I got her from the shelter. She isn’t the prettiest, but she’s pretty good and well tamed and I just knew no one was going to want her because she’s a pitbull and...” He suddenly went quiet. “...She’s not all that pretty and you know how people are assholes!” He spoke up once more. “They care more ‘bout outer-beauty when it’s what’s in the heart that counts, right girl?”   
  
“Right...” I murmured while I took my backpack off, placed it on the floor as well as my violin case.   
  
“Lemme give you a tour of the house after I feed my dog, okay?”   
  
“Okay.”   
  
He got up and walked passed me and into what was the kitchen (I assume). I heard bits of hard dog food it a metallic bowel. Once he was done pouring it, he laid the bowel on the floor to have (holy shit that sounded like a big dog) eat it. He then turned on the water faucet and there was a sound of yet another came from the same type of bowel being put under it. Water bowel, got it.   
  
“This lady, I’m sure you’ll meet her one day, her name’s Selina, anyways, she kept daring me to work at the animal shelter for weeks on end and so I gave up the long, tragic, epic battle and went to work there as community service and I just kept coming back ‘cause I sort of liked it there!”   
  
I walked over to have a more clear sound of his voice. I leaned on the counter to his kitchen... Is it called an island? I have no idea. He placed the bowel on the floor and there came loud chugging.   
  
“It was about a month later of me working there as a volunteer when Taco came into my life. She was used as this fight dog and came in with her ear nearly bitten off and her leg broken beyond belief. Her right front leg. She needed to go to the vet. When she came back, getting all better- she came in almost dying-  And I just thought those big brown eyes were meant for me.. I just fell in love at first sight!”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry in advance if this seems super duper messy... I tried to figure things out since this was in parts, as well. So some of the lines were repeated. I tried my best to get rid of this as much as I could have.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to let you all know that I am very sorry if this is bad. Even still, I hope that you guys like it a little bit enough! A serious blast from the past, Daaannng


End file.
